The Billings Gazette is reporting that the horses ridden by the U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona are being fed a pellet-based diet. Why is this ISW news? The horses have been switched off hay to avoid the danger of their feces spreading non-native weeds, typically found as hay contaminants, into the deserts of Arizona. I still wonder how groups that rent out goats and sheep to eat invasives deal with this issue.
Thanks to a member of the Yahoo! group ma-eppc for posting this article.
3 comments:
At least in the East SF Bay Area, the one goat herder I'm aware of doesn't deal with the fecal seed issue at all.
Then again, the goats work in areas already overwhellmed by invasive plants - Avena, Cortaderia, Cytisus, Centaurea and so forth - and the soil in such places almost certainly has a gigantic invasive seed bank already. The manure is probably more of a problem in that regard than the seeds in it.
let the chips fall where they may! lol
anonymous, where were you when I was trying to come up with the catchy post title? :-)
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